The name is absent

Lawyers and Church in Renaissance 143
between 1490 and 1520 and from among the men whose
reputation with their contemporaries was highest.

Jason or Giasone del Maino was perhaps the most promi-
nent figure among professors of law in the latter part of the
fifteenth century. He was born in 1435 at Pesaro where his
family was living in exile from Mfian because they had taken
part in a conspiracy against the ruling Visconti. He con-
sidered, however, that Milan was his patria because it had
been his father’s home and, as the family were connected
with the Sforza, they came to occupy a prominent position
in the Duchy after the change of dynasty in 1450. Jason
entered the University of Pavia in 1454 where he embarked
upon the study of law. One of his masters was the same
Catone Sacco to whom Valla had written his letter attacking
Bartolus and the medieval jurists. Thus in Jason’s education
we find mingled elements of the humanist tradition and the
medieval jurisprudence. At first Jason seemed to take but
little advantage of his opportunities. He wasted his time in
riotous living and a series of student escapades. His father
agreed to pay his debts and apparently Jason entered upon a
reformed career and gave himself to serious study learning
classical languages as well as the law. Of Latin authors Sal-
lust became his favorite and quotations from Sallust appear
frequently in his later works. In 1461 he moved to Bologna,
the oldest and at that time the most celebrated of legal facul-
ties, in order to study with Alexander Tartagna of ImoIa and
with Francesco Accolti who were the most respectable repre-
sentatives of the BartoIist tradition. Returning to Pavia he
took his doctorate in civil law in 1467. This was immediately
followed by his nomination as Professor at Pavia, a nomina-
tion undoubtedly influenced by the connections his family
enjoyed with the Sforza.

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